Good morning, colleagues.

Point Of Order

Before we proceed to orders of the day, I must advise the House on a point of order that came to the Chair's attention late yesterday. Under the item petitions, Mrs. Groenewegen presented a package of a number of letters that do not meet the requirements of a petition under our rules, but which could, nevertheless, be tabled under item 14, tabling of documents. Therefore, Petition 2-15(3) is hereby withdrawn by order of the Speaker. Thank you for your attention.

Item 2, orders of the day, Ministers' statements. The honourable Premier, Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it was with great pleasure I received news from Ottawa yesterday that Bill C-14, the Tlicho Land Claims and Self-Government Act, had received third and final reading in the Senate and was given Royal Assent.

---Applause

Mr. Speaker, this bill is the result of over a decade of hard work by negotiators, chiefs, elders and the Tlicho people. It represents the vision held by Chief Monfwi at the signing of Treaty 11 in 1921 and sets a new standard for land claims and self-government agreements in Canada.

Yesterday's announcement was an historic one for the Tlicho. I understand that more than 70 Tlicho people witnessed yesterday's event and celebrated almost immediately, with a rousing tea dance on Parliament Hill.

Bill C-14 will now come into force at a date set by a federal Order in Council after consultation with the Dogrib Treaty 11 Council and our government.

When it does, 39,000 square kilometres of land -- the largest single block of land owned by First Nations in Canada -- will be under the rightful control of the Tlicho people. As well, the Tlicho people will take the next step toward self-determination, towards building a future that ensures their culture, their language and their communities will continue to grow and prosper in the years to come.

The passage of Bill C-14 sends a message across the country that governments are committed to establishing a new relationship with aboriginal governments based on mutual respect and recognition.

It provides certainty for all levels of government and industry with respect to lands, resources, governance and jurisdiction and paves the way to a strong economic future for the Tlicho region, the Northwest Territories and all Canadians.

It also illustrates what we can accomplish when we work together. The Tlicho agreement is the product of a comprehensive and collaborate negotiation process between the Tlicho, Canada and the Northwest Territories.

I am honoured to have been part of this process. I was proud to represent the Members of this Legislative Assembly in speaking in support of this bill in Ottawa.

But, Mr. Speaker, our job in this Legislative Assembly is not done. I am hopeful in the coming days we will complete the final piece of the legislative puzzle necessary to ratify the Tlicho agreement by passing the Tlicho Community Services Agency Act.

Before I end, I want to acknowledge again the hard work and dedication of the Tlicho, the GNWT and federal negotiating teams. I would like to recognize and thank our Member of Parliament, the Honourable Ethel Blondin-Andrew, and our Senator, Nick Sibbeston, for their unwavering support for the passage of Bill C-14.

Most importantly, Mr. Speaker, I ask all Members to join me in congratulating the Tlicho people on this historic accomplishment. Mahsi cho.

---Applause

Thank you, Minister Handley. Item 2, Ministers' statements. The honourable Premier, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, every year the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation recognizes excellence and leadership in our country's aboriginal community by awarding National Achievement Awards.

Today, I am honoured to recognize and congratulate three residents of our territory who have been chosen to receive this prestigious award in 2005.

First, Ms. Bertha Allen of Inuvik, who is being honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

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In her former roles as the president of the Advisory Council on the Status of Women, the founding president of the NWT Native Women's Association and the president of the Native Women's Association of Canada, Bertha has been a trailblazer in the struggle for aboriginal and political equality for northern women.

Ms. Allen has been, and continues to be, a strong advocate for education and training, and was a key influence in the establishment and success of the NWT training centres in Yellowknife and Inuvik. She has also worked tirelessly to improve health and social services for the North through her participation on many boards and agencies including the GNWT's Council of Grandmothers in 2001.

Second, Mr. Andy Carpenter, Sr. of Sachs Harbour will be recognized for his outstanding contributions to the environment.

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Mr. Speaker, Andy Carpenter has devoted his life to the conservation and sustainable use of wildlife by all peoples. As head of the Sachs Harbour Hunters' and Trappers' Committee in the 1970s, he spearheaded an agreement that limited oil and gas activities on Banks Island to winter months when impacts would be minimized. This agreement remains a fundamental component of territorial land use regulations to this day.

Mr. Carpenter is also a founding chair of the Inuvialuit Game Council, past vice-chair of the Wildlife Management Advisory Council and was instrumental in establishing the International Polar Bear Management Agreement between Alaska and Canada. He was at the forefront of work to establish Ivvavik National Park -- Canada's First National park to be legislated by a land claim settlement -- and remains a driving force in conservation and management of wildlife in the Northwest Territories.

Finally, Mr. Speaker, Ms. Sharon Firth, originally from Aklavik...

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...will be recognized for her extraordinary achievement in sport.

Together with her twin sister, Shirley, and other members of the highly acclaimed Territorial Experimental Ski Training Program, Ms. Firth took the cross-country skiing world by storm beginning in the 1970s. She attended her first Olympic games in Sapporo, Japan, in 1972. Not only was she among the first NWT residents to compete in an Olympics, she was part of the first Canadian women's cross-country ski teams ever to participate in the games.

In total, Ms. Firth competed successfully in a total of four Olympics and is the only North American woman in her sport to compete in three consecutive world championships. In 1985, she was the first Canadian to compete in all eight events of the Great American Ski Race and the first to win the overall title. She was inducted into Canada's Skiing Hall of Fame in 1990.

Today, Sharon Firth is a respected youth program advisor for the Government of the Northwest Territories. This role is fitting given how much she has inspired youth across our territory and Canada for more than two decades. She is a highly regarded role model, which she puts to practice by delivering motivational speeches to schools throughout the NWT.

Mr. Speaker, these individuals, Ms. Bertha Allen, Mr. Andy Carpenter and Ms. Sharon Firth, along with other recipients of this year's National aboriginal Achievement Awards, will be honoured at a gala awards ceremony in Saskatoon on March 31st of this year.

On behalf of the people of the Northwest Territories, today I offer my heartfelt congratulations to them for receiving this national distinction, and express to them the pride we share in having them as ambassadors for the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Mr. Handley. I am sure that all Members will join you in sending those congratulations. Item 2, Ministers' statements. The honourable Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I am pleased to provide Members with an update on an initiative being undertaken to address our government's commitment to support healthy lifestyle choices as outlined in the GNWT Strategic Plan - Self-Reliant People, Communities and Northwest Territories, A Shared Responsibility.

Tomorrow, February 12, 2005, is Northwest Territories Ski Day. As part of the celebrations, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs is pleased to announce that through the Pan Territorial Sport Strategy, a new Ski Promotions Program has been developed in cooperation with the Northwest Territories ski division and the Northwest Territories Recreation and Parks Association.

This program will provide financial contributions to a number of new and existing local clubs to promote cross-country skiing. The department is also working with its partners to have each of these contributions matched by corporation donations and local cash or services in kind.

Mr. Speaker, cross-country skiing is a sport with a rich legacy in the North. It is a sport that can be easily adapted as a physical activity option for all ages and one that is easy to choose as part of a physically active lifestyle.

It is also a sport that provides northerners with an opportunity to reach beyond our borders and represent the Northwest Territories on the national and international stage.

In the recent past this has included role models like Sharon Firth who will be honoured for her sport and youth role model contributions at the National aboriginal Achievement Awards in Saskatoon on March 31st.

Today it is skiers and biathletes like Sharon Daitch, Mike Argue and Elle Mawdsley who recently competed at the World University Games in Innsbruck, Austria; and Lindsey Bolivar and Brendan Green who will compete for Canada at the Junior/Youth World Championships in Sweden this March.

The development of cross-country ski programs will also enable communities to support the development of new trails and thereby provide assistance to other sport and physical activity programs like hiking, biking and biathlon, that also use these trails.

In the near future, I will be announcing details on the projects being funded, as well as the process that other communities can use to apply for support under this program.

Mr. Speaker, this initiative is one of a number of programs that social program departments are working on to address our commitment to provide NWT residents with greater opportunity to choose a healthy lifestyle.

In the next few weeks, my social program colleagues and I will be providing you with additional information on how we are incorporating this goal into various aspects of our departmental plans. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Item 2, Ministers' statements. The honourable Premier, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise Members that the Honourable Charles Dent will be absent from the House today to attend the signing of the Early Learning Childcare Agreement for federal/provincial/territorial Ministers of Social Services in Vancouver. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Item 2, Ministers' statement. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one of the goals we set for ourselves at the beginning of the 15th Assembly was youth, parents and adults who see wellness as a preferred alternative and who make healthy and productive lifestyle choices for themselves and their families. We regularly hear our Health and Social Services Minister and now our MACA Minister, lecturing to all the smokers and the drinkers and the couch potatoes of the Northwest Territories to change their unhealthy ways.

That is why, Mr. Speaker, it is so difficult for the people of Nahanni Butte and for me to understand why this government has not put a higher priority on building a gymnasium for Nahanni Butte. Despite all the announcements in the budget yesterday about capital investments and infrastructure, there's no mention of it. Kids in larger centres take gymnasiums and hockey rinks and swimming pools for granted. In fact, the budget speaks to some communities getting new schools and second gymnasiums, and there's none of that in Nahanni Butte, Mr. Speaker.

In a small place like Nahanni Butte that doesn't have much for recreation facilities, it is easy for people, especially youth, to get bored and slip into the couch potato lifestyle. That's when a lot of the unhealthy habits Minister Miltenberger warns us about get started. You can't expect kids to be shooting baskets or kicking a soccer ball around outside at a playfield at 40 below. They need an indoor place for their sports and games. Exercise and social activities aren't just a nice thing to be able to do. They are critical for children's physical, emotional and social development, and get them into a healthy lifestyle that hopefully they will keep throughout their lives.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister's answers to my questions last fall weren't very encouraging. But with the recent announcement of the municipal rural infrastructure fund, I believe this government now has the means to build a gym in Nahanni Butte, long before 2017; 2017, Mr. Speaker. A little boy or girl starting kindergarten this fall still won't get to play in a community gym until Grade 12. We can do better than that. At the appropriate time I will have questions for the Minister. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Pokiak.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My statement today has to do with patients and escorts travelling outside of their home communities for medical treatment; and in particular with regard to communications between the airlines and the travel agencies.

Recently, Mr. Speaker, in the last two months I ran into constituents, both at the Inuvik and Yellowknife airports, who were returning home after receiving medical treatment at the Stanton Territorial Hospital. On the first occasion, Mr. Speaker, an elderly 86-year-old woman with an escort arrived in Inuvik, and must have travelled from her home community late that afternoon. She found out on her arrival at Inuvik that she was on standby to return to her community. Fortunately, Mr. Speaker, the escort had an appointment at the Inuvik hospital that afternoon. Eventually, they had to overnight in Inuvik over the weekend, mainly because there are no scheduled airline trips to Tuktoyaktuk over the weekend, Mr. Speaker.

On the second occasion, Mr. Speaker, another patient arrived from the Stanton Territorial Hospital in Inuvik. This patient was clearly in pain because he had just had an operation the night before. Once again, on the arrival in Inuvik, he found that he was on standby to return to Tuk. I assisted the patient by calling the travel department at the Inuvik General Hospital. Their response at that time was to wait at the airport. Let me say again, Mr. Speaker, the patient was in pain. Mr. Speaker, this is about a four-hour wait at the airport.

Finally, Mr. Speaker, once again I was travelling to Tuk, and on my return there were a number of patients waiting at the airport to return to Tuk. Eventually, Mr. Speaker, the plane was cancelled that evening. I was told the next morning by some of the patients that they were denied supper at the hospital because they shut down at 6:00 p.m. Fortunately some of the patients had money to get their own food at the restaurant.

Mr. Speaker, should there not be better communication between the travel agencies of the hospitals and the airlines prior to the patients being released from the hospitals? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Mr. Pokiak. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to speak today about diamonds. I don't feel satisfied that this government has given the residents of the Northwest Territories and the Members of this Assembly all the answers to what went wrong with the Sirius factory; why the Leviev Group was denied access to rough diamonds to run this factory. This government is losing millions of dollars on this plant. Where does the blame lie?

This distasteful story raises a number of very fundamental issues. Who takes responsibility for the development of our economy? Is it the 19 of us duly-elected Members of this House or is it the diamond producers? If this government is going to accept the fact that the mining companies get the last word, maybe we should just close up shop and throw them the keys.

I want to assure every person here that I will continue to fight for the independence and the integrity of the decisions and the will of this Legislature and this government. What we have here is a huge disconnect between what the producers are saying and what the government is saying and if you throw in the proponent, the Leviev Group, somewhere in the middle of all of this is the truth. What is the truth? What really happened here? Why was the government asleep at the switch while the deal with the Leviev Group went of the rails, Mr. Speaker?

If the government knew -- and I think they had a very good idea -- why didn't they step in? Where is our obligation to protect the secondary industry and mitigate our losses? I was shocked to learn yesterday during the Finance Minister's budget address that the secondary industry and the potential economic growth that that would bring to the Territories was nowhere to be found in his budget address, Mr. Speaker.

No, the producers are in there, but he's not in there, it's not in there. He mentioned all producers by name, but did not mention the secondary industry. I hope this omission does not indicate the government's overall view of our secondary diamond industry.

Mr. Speaker, today, later on the order papers, I will have questions for the Minister of Finance with regard to this issue. Thank you.

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Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Villeneuve.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I will use my Member's statement to reiterate my full support for the staff members of Dene K'onia who travelled all the way from Hay River yesterday just for the day, to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with the government's proposed expenditure reductions; specifically in the Department of Justice on youth rehabilitation and reintegration.

Mr. Speaker, many of my constituents in Tu Nedhe -- mind you, not by choice -- rely heavily on the services that have been provided by the youth centre in Hay River. They count on these services, not just for their children's sake but also for their own peace of mind and the satisfaction of knowing that their children are being treated in a manner that is consistent with their Dene culture and values. These families know that the people who are working to rehabilitate and reintegrate their kids into society are from the same community as they are and have experienced similar circumstances in their lives, but have now dedicated their own lives to helping their own people.

Mr. Speaker, I know that the government has stated over and over again that the rehabilitation and reintegration programs for the youth available in the Dene K'onia centre will be mirrored in Yellowknife and that they may also have more programs available in the near future, Mr. Speaker.

To me, it is not just about what is available to the youth, Mr. Speaker. It is about who will be available to the youth and who will be delivering these programs.

Mr. Speaker, this is a critical piece of the picture that must have been smudged when the Department of Justice was reassessing its organizational portrait of efficiency and effectiveness. This new vision of effective and efficient youth justice in the Northwest Territories that the government is proposing, just doesn't say any of that to me, not to my constituents, not to the staff of Dene K'onia, not to the residents of the NWT and especially not to the youth of the Dene K'onia facility in Hay River.

Therefore, Mr. Speaker, I will be urging this government to revisit and hopefully reassess the justice cost-cutting measures being proposed and come up with a plan that is acceptable, fair and fundamentally effective to ensure that the youth are being treated by the best means we have at our disposal, which, in my opinion, Mr. Speaker, is the staff of the Dene K'onia centre in Hay River. Mahsi.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to join the Premier and everyone in this House in sending out my own very warm words of congratulations to the leaders and the people of Tlicho in obtaining Royal Assent to the document that would see their vision of a self-government become a reality, in short order.

Mr. Speaker, it's hard to believe that it's been 13 years since the Dene Metis Comprehensive Agreement was not able to be ratified. But, like most success stories, the Tlicho people were able to rise like a phoenix from the ashes and, with unrelenting efforts on the part of everyone involved, they were able to achieve their dream yesterday. I must say also, Mr. Speaker, I am proud to have been a part of the works that we do in the House to go through the passages of lots of legislative and policy documents that would enable this to happen.

Mr. Speaker, I must say no one knows how to celebrate with as much pizzazz and gusto as do the Tlicho people. There is nothing like a spontaneous breaking out into a tea dance, circling, locked in arms, ever so joyously to the emotional chanting and the beat of Dene drumming in the halls of power in Ottawa.

Mr. Speaker, we have witnessed the power and impact of Dogrib political mobilization close to home, but now the whole country had a chance to get a real taste of it. I believe it was a singular act that stated loud and clear that they are here, that they are powerful, that they are very proud, that they have a right, and they have a right claim and they secured that yesterday. I was very proud to see that on national news and I want to send them very warm congratulations and to say also that Dogribs are Yellowknife's best friends. There are many people, many Dogribs living in my area and in this city, and they add greatly to our economy and to every part of our life. I wish the Tlicho people well. I look forward to seeing how that government will work hard to serve every one of the Dogrib people well in the weeks, years and months to come. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Good morning. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I listened with a great deal of interest, and I think a number of people across the Northwest Territories did this morning, to the CBC Radio interview with Randy Henderson and Anna Maria Tremonte and the former Justice Thomas Berger when they visited the question: Is the NWT ready now for the Mackenzie Valley pipeline? Is now the right time for the Mackenzie pipeline?

The survey, over the course of 40 minutes of phone-in air time, was obviously not scientific or all-encompassing, but it gave a very fascinating snapshot of where the mood may be today. The result of that short radio survey, Mr. Speaker, was, it seemed to me, a resounding no, the Northwest Territories is not ready. The principal concerns raised were on the social impact front.

You know, we are never really ready to undertake big, significant, life-changing events. I look back and ask myself was I really ever ready to get married? Well, you know, that was a big step, but 27 years later, I have, I believe, a very successful marriage. Was I able to run for politics? No, not really. What was it that helped us as families or communities do these things? It's trust, Mr. Speaker. Unless there is trust amongst us, our families and our colleagues, our workmates, our partners, that we won't fail each other, we won't let each other down, we won't abandon and betray each other, and then we will be able to do amazing things.

Today, Mr. Speaker, it seems that that level of trust is not there with this Mackenzie Valley pipeline. It's sad to see that, but we are engaged in so many processes to look for that, to seek it, to find it, to affirm it. I believe we can get there, but let's not take for granted that we are ready for this pipeline, because I believe we are not and we heard that this morning on the CBC. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.